COLLEGE FOOTBALL

COLLEGE FOOTBALL;Quarterback Earns Tag As a Big-Game Player

By CHARLIE NOBLES

Published: November 27, 1995

GAINESVILLE, Fla., Nov. 26—
In practice, his passes often flutter like the proverbial butterfly, and don't travel much faster. Steve Spurrier, his coach, admits to sometimes cringing at his accuracy.

Yet when the stadium fills up, Danny Wuerffel, the University of Florida's junior quarterback with the shot-put delivery, is among college football's deadliest passers.

Wuerffel completed the regular season Saturday with 443 yards passing and 4 touchdowns in the unbeaten Gators' 35-24 victory over Florida State at Florida Field. The performance added to Wuerffel's reputation as a big-game performer and may have vaulted him into Heisman Trophy contention.

The two most highly publicized Heisman candidates, Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier and Ohio State running back Eddie George, had forgettable weekends. Frazier passed for 128 yards and rushed for 35 in a 37-0 victory over Oklahoma, while George rushed for 104 yards in the Buckeyes' backbreaking 31-23 loss to Michigan.

In Florida's victory, Wuerffel elevated his gaudy season totals to 2,990 yards passing and a Southeastern Conference-record 33 touchdowns.

It also put Florida in position to play Nebraska for the national championship in the Fiesta Bowl, provided the Gators can defeat Arkansas for the S.E.C. title Saturday in Atlanta. This season's bowl alliance set up the Fiesta Bowl showdown by giving the game the two top-ranked teams among Notre Dame and the champions of five conferences -- the Big Eight (Nebraska), the S.E.C. (Florida or Arkansas), the Atlantic Coast (Florida State), the Big East (Virginia Tech and Miami tied) and the Southwest (Texas or Texas A&M).

But the alliance has created a new kind of intrigue: Will the Sugar Bowl undermine the Orange Bowl by opting for Virginia Tech over Florida State to face the winner of this Saturday's Texas-Texas A&M game?

The alliance works like a draft, with the Orange Bowl getting the third choice of the six teams that qualify. That is expected to be Notre Dame. But the Sugar Bowl has the fourth choice and it could select Virginia Tech, which doesn't have the national following of Miami but beat the Hurricanes during the season and is ranked higher.

If Virginia Tech is chosen, it would spoil the Orange Bowl's dream of reviving the Notre Dame-Miami rivalry because only one team from each conference can play in the alliance bowls. Instead, the Orange Bowl would probably pit Florida State against Notre Dame, with Miami going to the Gator Bowl to face Clemson.

The Big Ten, which isn't in the alliance and doesn't appear to have a shot at a national title, will send long-suffering Northwestern to the Rose Bowl against Southern Cal, Ohio State to the Citrus Bowl to play Tennessee, Penn State to the Outback Bowl against Auburn, Michigan to the Alamo Bowl to play the Texas-Texas A&M loser and Iowa to the Sun Bowl to play Washington.

Florida clearly is pinning its hopes for a first-ever national championship on Wuerffel, a 6-foot-2-inch, 211-pounder from Fort Walton Beach, Fla. He is an irrepressible package of guts and desire, mixed liberally with persistence and optimism.

"What Danny is as a person is what makes him a player," said the Florida offensive-line coach, Jimmy Ray Stephens, who coached Wuerffel to a high school state title.

The son of an Air Force chaplain, Wuerffel is devoutly religious and has a knack of looking for something positive, a trait that has had a contagious influence on his teammates.

Wuerffel was sacked six times by the Seminoles, but he said he was so focused on winning that it didn't dawn on him to feel frustrated. "I'll take the licks and keep on throwing any day," he said.

"F.S.U. was putting pressure on him all day, but you could never tell it, the way he was in the huddle," said his road roommate, wide receiver Chris Doering.

Ultimately he has won over Spurrier, a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback himself at Florida and a very tough man to please.

"We worry about him sometimes in practice," Spurrier said. "But all of a sudden, you get into the game and you see him pick out the right guys, hang in there and his ball gets sharper."

Wuerffel's Florida career began with 22 touchdown passes in seven games for a National Collegiate Athletic Association freshman record, then settled into a two-year competition with Terry Dean for the job.

But Dean is no longer at Florida and Doering said, "Having job security, knowing you're going to be in the game even if you make a mistake, has really helped Danny."

With a year of eligibility left, there's no telling what records Wuerffel might accumulate. And he's planning on a career in the National Football League after that.

"Definitely," he said. "I'm realistic. I understand there are a lot of things I have to improve on. But I can always keep on trying."